122 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



lambs bred, should be the most even in size, the finest and best in 

 quality, and in every way the most desirable and salable of any 

 stock preceding- them. Finally, the standard of their excellence 

 should be their own advertisement and their market. The credit 

 or debtor balance at the year's end on the pages of the ledger de- 

 voted to the farm stock, depends not only on the management and 

 the feeding of the stock, but also, on its yearly weeding and selec- 

 tion. And upon the quality of the standard chosen as a model or 

 fifuide in the management, settles the problem as to profit or loss in 

 labor and investment. 



It is a maxim ''that the sheep possesses for the farmer a golden 

 hoof," and while this should be true, comparatively speaking, the 

 saying is just as likely to be erroneous, as the remark we have often 

 heard made that "sheep were profitable as grubbers." "Do men 

 gather grapes of thorns, or tigs, of thistles?" There can be but one 

 answer to this question, and that in the negative, and I do not know 

 of a single instance in my recollection where any man gathered suc- 

 cessfully, wool and mutton from hazel, burdock or thistles. We 

 often see the plan tried, but the scheme is never successful. 



The start in a race frequently determines the result. The prep 

 aration of a seed bed often determines the result of a crop; hence, 

 also, in the beginning or start in a farm enterprise, upon the stand- 

 ard chosen by which we select or breed our farm stock, with clear 

 and well-defined ideas as to what purposes we select for, or breed 

 for, determines whether or not the enterprise is to be crowned with 

 success, and the hoofs of our farm stock prove to be golden. 



The farmer whose ambition is guided by cool and judicious judg- 

 ment in the management of a mixed husbandry, is probably as 

 likely to succeed at present under the influence of prevailing cir- 

 cumstances to send his grain fed to stock and the stock itself from 

 the farm on golden hoofs as any other class of farmers; like other 

 rules, however, this principle is subject to exceptions. And yet we 

 confound this principle of a mixed husbandrj' with a principle which 

 often breeds disaster, as in carrying some of all kinds of stock we 

 are likely to overcrowd our feeding capacity in winter, and our pas- 

 tures in summer. The sales are not sweeping at any one time, lessen- 

 ing the amount of stock at a single sale to the capacity of the 

 amount of feed on hand to carry the stock through a protracted 

 drouth or long winter. Every careful and foresighted farmer who 

 foresees the unwelcome expense of having to buy feed in seasons 

 of scarcity, to carry his stock through a protracted drouth or long 

 winter, will avert the danger by adjusting the amount of his stock to 

 the corresponding capacity of his feed. 



It is an old adage and a true one, that "a danger foreseen is half 

 averted." And the farmer who realizes this standard fact that 



